2016: Dubai Postcards Odyssey

We always used to send postcards to our family and friends from all over the world. After a couple of years of traveling and a bad experience in China where none of the 30+ postcards we sent had reached their destination we stopped doing it and only sent an occasional card to our family.

What happened to our holiday postcards from Dubai

Two months ago we were traveling to Dubai for Christmas and New Year and thought it was a good idea to send our Holiday greetings from there.

We bought postcards and stamps at our hotel in Dubai, wrote a couple dozen of cards and gave it at the reception.

A few weeks later we asked our family what they thought about our Christmas cards this year. What cards?! It appears that nobody received our postcards. Not in Belgium, not in the UK, not in Lithuania, and not in the USA.

Some friends suggested that maybe Muslim countries censure the outgoing mail and kept it because it had something to do with Christmas…

Other people joked that Dubai probably uses camels to transport the mail and that it might take a while…

Recently I was preparing a blog post about all kinds of funny and special Dubai facts and I found out that they have a really strange postal system in Dubai – they don’t have street addresses, just to mention one fact. Also, we have not seen one single post-office in Dubai during our stay (and we did look!). So we started to think it was probably not the best idea to send postcards from a place that doesn’t have a decent postal system.

7 weeks – that’s how much time it took for the postcards to get from Dubai to Belgium

Just when we forgot about the cards, we received a couple of e-mails from family and friends thanking for the late New Year’s wishes. 7 weeks – that’s how much time it took for the postcards to get from Dubai to Belgium. A few days later they arrived in the UK as well. Just this week, exactly 9 weeks later , the postcards finally reached Lithuania. There is still no sign of the cards we sent to the United States though…

‘Is this card meant for a Chinese New Year?’ – my aunt asked. My cousin said that even a camel would have been faster and suggested that they probably use turtles… By the time our cards reach our American friends they will probably think that we are really early with our New Year’s wishes for 2017… In any case, it gives us all something to laugh about.

One of the people that called us to thank for the card said they had friends living in Dubai who told them that outgoing international mail should not only have a stamp, but also some kind of a sticker, otherwise it gets shipped by boat. I don’t know if it’s true and what kind of a sticker you need (if any), but that would make sense. It took two months for the boat to reach Belgium, UK was next, then it took them another week or two to find Lithuania… With a bit of luck the rest of the cards are on their way to the USA as we speak.

Should we still be sending postcards in this time of instant communication? Or are they getting extinct?

But what about all those people who are not online? What about your grandma?

Even after this experience, or maybe even more because of it, I would say don’t be afraid to be old-fashioned and send a postcard next time you are traveling. In the best case it will arrive as expected and you’ll make someone happy. And otherwise you will have a funny story to share at the next family reunion. With a bit of luck you might even make it into the Guinness World Records. Although that might be a tough one to beat – there was once a letter that took 220 years to arrive…

Like what you've read? There is more...

Welcome!

Hi, I’m Jurga. A traveller with a camera and a mom of three boys. On this blog I share our family's travel experiences all over the world, coupled with lots of practical information and useful tips. My pictures will inspire you to discover new destinations and my stories will prove that you can take your kids anywhere.Join us as we discover the world one beautiful adventure at a time!Read more about me, my family, and our trips all over the world...